2 More Pontiac Guards Guilty In Drug Probe

July 21, 1988|By Daniel Egler, Chicago Tribune.

SPRINGFIELD — Two more guards at Pontiac Correctional Center pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal drug charges, bringing to five the number of guards who have entered guilty pleas this week in connection with an investigation into drug trafficking at the maximum-security prison.

Lt. Steven Kester, 41, and Bryant L. Fraher, 26, both of Pontiac, pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Harold Baker. Kester pleaded guilty to two counts of knowingly possessing marijuana for which the maximum penalty is two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Fraher entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to unlawfully possess marijuana and cocaine between July and October of last year. He faces up to a year in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Both men also had been indicted on charges of possession of drugs with the intent to distribute them.

The two, like the three other Pontiac employees who pleaded guilty earlier this week, have agreed to resign from the state Department of Corrections and not seek employment with the department in the future, according to J. William Roberts, the U.S. attorney in Springfield.

They were among 14 Pontiac prison guards, including a cellhouse superintendent, who were indicted by a federal grand jury in May on charges of drug trafficking and drug use by employees at the prison in Livingston County., about 100 miles southwest of Chicago

Code-named Operation White Shirt, the joint federal and state investigation was begun after the arrest in March of one corrections officer, Lt. Cesar Rolando Chavez. He was accused of delivering 17 grams of cocaine.

The investigation widened after police discovered a ledger kept by Chavez that reportedly contained the names of those who purchased drugs from him, sources have told The Tribune. Roberts, though, has declined to say whether any of the 14 indicted guards were listed in Chavez`s ledger.